De Blasio Betting on Pre-K to Succeed

Mayor Bill de Blasio, at the Greek Independence Day Parade in Manhattan on Sunday, has not reduced the pressure on his team, or on himself. “This is mission critical,” he said.CreditCreditYana Paskova for The New York Times

Mayor Bill de Blasio stumbled away from the first state budget battle of his administration with his mandate bruised and his political momentum stymied, but clutching a hard-fought prize: money, and a lot of it, for his signature plan to offer free prekindergarten classes in New York City.

Now the onus falls on City Hall to deliver in five months a program that has taken other cities years to develop, and on which the mayor has placed an increasingly large wager that his early missteps will be forgotten, so long as his centerpiece plan proves a success.

“The mayor’s position and the mayor’s rollout was very bold,” said Senator Jeffrey D. Klein, a Bronx Democrat, who helped negotiate the final funding amount, $300 million, for the city’s prekindergarten program. “It’s just a matter of now making sure that it’s implemented well.”

That calculus — that a grand policy achievement can wash away tough headlines — was repeated time and again by Mr. de Blasio’s advisers throughout his painful legislative fight in Albany, where the mayor was routinely outmaneuvered by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and lost his fight to raise taxes on wealthy New York City residents.

As criticism of the mayor rose, and his poll numbers fell, aides in City Hall dismissed such concerns as ephemeral, insisting that all would be forgotten after Mr. de Blasio obtained funding and began to enact his education agenda.

But Mr. de Blasio may have sacrificed more to secure prekindergarten than he bargained for.

In the midst of negotiations with Albany, the mayor’s team was blindsided by a controversy over charter schools, which threw Mr. de Blasio into the center of a heated national debate and provided Mr. Cuomo with another wedge against his negotiating rival. The controversy set off a debate among the mayor’s top advisers, some of whom believed City Hall had moved too slowly to counter a coordinated public-relations attack from charter schools and their well-heeled backers.

When the final budget was released this weekend, Mr. de Blasio discovered that his authority over the use of public school space for charter schools had been diminished, jeopardizing his much-discussed efforts to slow their expansion in New York. It was a potent lesson for the mayor that Mr. Cuomo can prove a constant menace, able to meddle with the city’s agenda in future budget cycles.

“I believe this was a learning experience for him,” Senator Martin J. Golden, a Brooklyn Republican, said. “The terrain in Albany is much different than he may have thought it was.”

On Sunday, Mr. de Blasio spoke triumphantly of the funding he secured for prekindergarten classes, calling the program “historic.” And his advisers pointed out that the prekindergarten plan, all but dismissed when Mr. de Blasio unveiled it as a fledgling mayoral candidate in 2012, was now among the foremost policy issues in New York politics.

Those same aides acknowledged that getting the prekindergarten program underway by fall is now of paramount importance.

“In September, there are going to be tens of thousands of people taking their children to a full-day pre-K class in New York City, and that’s what really matters at the end of the day,” said Peter Ragone, a senior adviser in City Hall and one of Mr. de Blasio’s top strategists.

Inside City Hall, the administration is devoting vast resources to build up the program and is hiring numerous officials dedicated to its implementation, even as the mayor faces lingering criticism about the slow pace of his appointments in other key roles. The city’s Buildings Department, for instance, still has no permanent commissioner, and the Fire Department and the Office of Emergency Management are being led by temporary holdovers from the last administration.

Every other week, representatives from at least five city agencies meet at City Hall to check in on prekindergarten’s progress. Besides education officials, the meeting includes representatives from the Fire Department, which would have to issue permits for some newly designated classrooms, and the city’s Economic Development Corporation, which could help facilitate the placement of prekindergarten classes in private retail space.

Mr. de Blasio, in his public remarks, has made no effort to reduce the pressure on his team, or on himself. “This is mission critical,” he said on Tuesday, at one of three public appearances last week that were focused on the program. “Literally mission critical for the good of our schools.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a frequent presence at Mr. de Blasio’s rallies for his education plan, said he was pleased that the mayor had secured a significant amount in funding from the state.

“If you count the numbers, it’s less than what he and those of us who supported wanted, but the fact that he was able to get it done at all is a victory for him,” Mr. Sharpton said in a telephone interview.

Mr. Sharpton added that the mayor’s implementation of the program would be crucial.

“He’s got to make it as effective as he can,” Mr. Sharpton said. “They are going to have to work hard. I think it’s a poker game. He lost a few hands, but in the end, he can win the game.”

Kate Taylor contributed reporting.

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